


hold each other close the whole night through

by nateheywood



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Coldflash Bingo 2019, Established Relationship, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Feels, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Literally this is pure fluff, M/M, Self-Indulgent, Shmoop, Short & Sweet, and len reciprocates as best he can, basically barry ropes len into letting him compliment him, because len is beautiful and barry needs to tell him, compliments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 17:23:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17923139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nateheywood/pseuds/nateheywood
Summary: “Your smile is pretty captivating,” Barry says through his own grin. “It’s so small, but that’s how you know it’s genuine. It’s not over the top like it is when you’re playing a character.”Len’s smile turns into a confused expression, eyes a little wide, and Barry snorts. “If you thought that I was gonna give you foreplay, you’re sadly mistaken,” he tells him. “I’m gonna romance the fuck out of you.”Or, I was given the prompt "Have you always been this beautiful?" and I took it and ran.





	hold each other close the whole night through

**Author's Note:**

> my first coldflash bingo!! the others will probably not be this short because my mind exploded on practically every prompt, but this one was so sweet and I wanted to write it IMMEDIATELY
> 
> Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Prompt: "Have you always been this beautiful?"

Barry has been awake for what feels like  _ millenia,  _ Len’s breathing having evened out  _ years _ ago, but a quick glance at the alarm clock beside his head tells him that it’s only been around an hour.

They’d stayed up late tonight, finally stumbling to bed around 1:30 after Len had fallen asleep in the middle of their Star Trek marathon, head against the back of the couch and hand still loosely holding a piece of popcorn. Barry had roused him, and, after the obligatory poke at Len for being an old man, they crawled into bed. Len had fallen asleep instantly. Barry very emphatically did  _ not _ .

He rolls over with a huff, bored out of his mind and frustrated with his body’s frankly astounding resistance to falling asleep, and immediately winces when he sees Len bounce slightly with the mattress. Although he wouldn’t be too upset if Len  _ did  _ wake up - it would give him something to focus on that isn’t the ceiling.

Barry studies Len’s face, at first to make sure he isn’t waking up and then just to admire him - the way his expression softens with sleep, the soft way he snores, the way he’s made sure the blankets are covering everything except for his head, even though he’ll inevitably have kicked them off by the end of the night.

Before he can think better of it, Barry has reached a hand out to touch the side of Len’s face, lightly tracing his cheek and then his jaw, admiring the angles and the sharp edges of his boyfriend’s face. Emboldened by a lack of reaction on Len’s part, Barry moves up to his eyes, imagining himself to be a blind person feeling out a face for the first time, skimming the thin skin underneath Len’s eyelids and then up to his eyebrows. He reaches his other hand out to follow both eyebrows with his thumbs, pressing more firmly that he had been because it felt more comfortable.

“Have you always been this beautiful?” Barry whispers, to himself, because God knows Len gets skittish when he tries to talk to him like this.

“Probably.” A hand on his wrist startles a yelp out of him, and Len lets out a short laugh, opening his eyes a little blearily.

“Jesus, Len,” Barry snaps, regaining his breath and pulling his hands away to shove Len’s shoulder lightly. “How long have you been awake?”

“Since you started putting your cold fingers all over my face.”

Barry feels himself flush with some embarrassment. “Creep.”

“How exactly am  _ I  _ the creep here?” Len pushes himself up into a sitting position, and Barry copies him to playfully push at his shoulder again, at a loss for a good comeback.

Len catches his hand as he pulls it back, and places it back onto his cheek.

“Anyways. Feel like telling me what you find so captivating?”

Barry raises an eyebrow at him, moving his hand so that it’s more comfortably splayed across Len’s cheek, fingers nearly reaching the back of his neck. “I never said ‘captivating’,” Barry teases, rubbing his thumb against Len’s cheekbone so that he knows he doesn’t really mean it. “Fishing for compliments, much?”

Len smirks, but his eyes are soft as he looks at Barry, head tilted. His own thumb rubs circles into Barry wrist. “It’s always possible.”

Barry grins at him, lifting his other hand so that he’s cupping Len’s face on both sides. “Then I guess I’ll appease you, just to make sure.” Len smiles, the close lipped one reserved specifically for Barry and Lisa, and Barry places both his thumbs on the corners of it, so that it looks like he’s keeping the smile in place.

“Your smile  _ is _ pretty captivating,” Barry says through his own grin. “It’s so small, but that’s how you know it’s genuine. It’s not over the top like it is when you’re playing a character.”

Len’s smile turns into a confused expression, eyes a little wide, and Barry snorts. “If you thought that I was gonna give you foreplay, you’re sadly mistaken,” he tells him. “I’m gonna romance the fuck out of you.”

Len looks vaguely uncomfortable, hand coming up to grip Barry’s wrist once more. “Barry….”

“Just let me,” Barry says, suddenly serious. “Please. You even asked for it.”

Len rolls his lips between his teeth but he lets go of Barry’s wrist, and Barry doesn’t waste any time in finding what he wants to list next. Len must be the perfect amount of sleepy - he rarely gives up this easy. 

Barry’s fingers move to circle around Len’s eyes, which are miraculously still on his and not the blankets.“Your eyes. They’re so  _ blue.  _ Makes me want to stare into them all day.” Len  _ does _ look to the side at this, finally breaking eye contact. Barry can’t find it in him to be disappointed - it’s  _ fun _ making Len squirm.

Barry grins at him and moves his hands to the line of Len’s jaw, running his fingers along it before cupping his face. “Your jaw. Your cheekbones.” And then, on a whim, he places a kiss on each cheekbone, hearing Len’s breath hitch. He kisses his jawline, encouraged, and then the tip of his nose. “Your nose.” Len seems to be holding his breath, and Barry presses a quick kiss to his lips as well before stroking Len’s buzz cut with both hands, running his fingers along the short hair before coming to rest at the nape of his neck. 

“Your head. Your hair - it suits you so well.” He presses a kiss to the top of his head. Len is staring at him with wide eyes as he pulls back. “I love doing it for you,” Barry continues, tracing Len’s hairline with his finger and running his nails along his scalp with his other hand. “In the mornings. When everything is so quiet until you turn on the clippers.”

He grabs Len’s hands, pressing kisses to his fingers. “Your fingers - more sexy than anything else.” Barry smiles mischievously, and Len laughs, although a little shaky. He raises said fingers to rest on Barry’s chin.

“Your chin,” he says softly, smile fading, tapping a finger against Barry’s skin. He’s hesitant, a little halting in his movements. Barry feels his breath stutter, affection and love swelling in his chest. He suddenly wants to kiss him for longer, wants to somehow communicate his love more than what he’s been doing, but he also doesn’t want to stop the intimacy they’ve somehow gotten into at three am.

Len slides his hand down to massage Barry’s shoulder, by his neck. “Your mole. Right here.”

“The freckle at your temple,” Barry says, and as he leans in to kiss it, he feels lips at his throat.

“Your neck,” Len says, and Barry shivers at the feeling of lips moving against his skin. “The Flash suit doesn’t do it nearly enough justice.”

“Your crow’s feet,” Barry says, brushing a kiss over them, although it’s more of a kiss on Len’s eyelid. “Before I got to know you, I never would have guessed you had them.”

“Your eyelashes,” Len says, and then he pauses for a brief second. “I like them,” he finishes, any awkwardness he’d lost coming back with a ferocity.

Barry can’t help it: he laughs. “You ‘like them’?” 

Len narrows his eyes. “Poetry ain’t exactly my thing,” he drawls, softness evaporating from his voice, and Barry pulls him a little closer, biting his lip to keep his grin under control.

“Definitely not,” he agrees, and he kisses Len softly, just pressing their lips together, before pulling away. “It’s okay. I still love you.” He knows that Len has trouble being vulnerable, is somehow embarrassed by it, but the fact that he even tries means worlds to Barry. It’s still fun to tease him about it, though (although he has to tread lightly - he’d gone a little too far once.)

Len cups Barry’s face and pulls him in for another kiss. Barry falls into it, pushing Len onto his back so that he ends up straddling his torso, deepening the kiss. “Ready to find out what else I find beautiful?” Barry says when they briefly break apart, and Len gives him a slow smirk, stroking the back of Barry’s neck as his eyes run across Barry’s face.

“Why not?”

They stay up for three more hours, and Barry can officially say that his sleep schedule is completely fucked. They end up sleeping until noon, Barry missing work and Len missing a meeting with ‘none of your concern’, but really, it was worth it. It always is.

**Author's Note:**

> This was absolutely self-indulgent, but I hope you all enjoyed reading as much as I did writing!


End file.
